KAMPALA (Reuters) – The dying toll from a landslide at an enormous rubbish dump in Uganda’s capital Kampala has risen to 13, police mentioned on Sunday, as rescue personnel continued to dig for survivors.
After torrential rain in latest weeks a bit of rubbish from town’s solely landfill website broke off late on Friday, crushing and burying houses on the sting of the positioning as residents slept.
On Saturday, the Kampala Capital Metropolis Authority had put the dying toll at eight.
“The latest we have is 13 dead, but rescue services are continuing,” mentioned police spokesperson Patrick Onyango.
No less than 14 individuals have been rescued to date, he mentioned, including that extra may nonetheless be trapped however the quantity is unknown.
Tents have been arrange close by for these displaced by the landslide, Uganda Pink Cross mentioned.
The landfill website, referred to as Kiteezi, has served as Kampala’s sole rubbish dump for many years and had became an enormous hill. Residents have lengthy complained of hazardous waste polluting the surroundings and posing a hazard to residents.
Efforts by town authority to obtain a brand new landfill website have dragged on for years.
There have been comparable tragedies elsewhere in Africa from poorly managed mountains of municipal rubbish.
In 2017 a minimum of 115 individuals had been killed in Ethiopia, crushed by a landslide at a rubbish dump in Addis Ababa. In Mozambique, a minimum of 17 individuals died in the same 2018 catastrophe in Maputo.
